District 2 BOE candidate West: Don't let politics impact the children

AUBURN — While Alabama may not have one of the best education systems in the country, state school board candidate Tracie West believes it can.

West, who serves as president of the Auburn City Board of Education, says that with the right plan Alabama can achieve success in the classroom.

“Once we set a course for success, we must stay the course and not allow the politics of the day to dictate how we will serve our children,” West said. “Alabama’s children are born as bright as the children in other states, but we have failed to work together on their behalf.”

West, a Republican, faces Democrat Adam Jortner, an Auburn University professor, in District 2 race in the Nov. 6 election. The district stretches from Alexander City to Auburn and southward to Dothan and Enterprise.

West tells voters that Alabama must focus on reading if it wants to see improvement in other areas of coursework.

“When a student cannot read on grade level, they struggle in other areas like math, science and the arts,” West said. “Achieving in math and science is important to the future of our citizens and our state.”

According to her campaign platform, West wants every student to have a safe and engaging learning environment, to have well-equipped teachers, and to have a plan for when they leave high school.

"I want productive, successful citizens to graduate from our schools,” West said. “I believe that every child, no matter where they come from, can learn and be successful in life.”

West, who has served on the Auburn school board since 2009, said her decision to run for the state school board was based on her passion to see students succeed.

“My reward for the last nine years has been watching young people achieve their goals locally,” West said.

Despite the success she has seen in one of Alabama’s higher achieving school systems, she knows it isn’t necessarily the same across the state.

“During this time, I have also watched our state struggle to provide consistent leadership,” West said. “I want to offer my skills and hard work for the benefit of all our school systems in Alabama.”

West realizes many school systems don’t have the tax support that Auburn has.

“The challenge is that students do not have consistent resources in public school classrooms across Alabama,” West said. “And yet, we fault the local schools and label them as failures. Children can’t control where they live.”

West says they must begin helping these systems by addressing policies that impede superintendents from providing the best learning environment. She wants to assist teachers by providing them with additional support materials that will help them develop students.

“We as a state can adopt materials that then can be provided at no additional cost to the local district,” West said. “This is just one area of support I believe can help immediately.”

Editor’s note: The Montgomery Advertiser has partnered with Auburn University’s journalism department to provide more coverage of the upcoming election. Students are profiling some of the state office candidates for the newspaper, and they will be covering several races on Election Day.

About Tracie West

Age: 50

Profession: Business owner and Realtor

Family: Married, three children

Education: Bachelor’s degree in interior design from Auburn University in 1991

Party: Republican

Offices held/offices sought: Ran for Auburn City Council in 2006; appointed by the Auburn City Council to Auburn school board in 2009 and currently serves as president; making her first race for state office.